ambassador susan rice has supporters inside the white house to become secretary of state. if she were to go for that job, if she were to be nominated, obviously, she would have a bruising confirmation battle, but people believe she would ultimately get confirmed. do they want that fight is a question and how would that affect the rest of the chess pieces? senator john kerry, who chairs the senate foreign relations committee, has, it's been widely known, long wanted to be secretary of state. if susan rice gets the state nomination, he could be put up for secretary of defense. or not. he says he's right now focused on his job in the senate. another possibility is the president has said he would lake to have a bipartisan cabinet. defense is a good place to put a republican, a republican such as former senator chuck hagel, for example. that's just one name i've heard bandied about. or you could put that person at cia. although the talk is that john brennan, the current homeland security adviser, is the man who could get cia if he wants it. but there's no knowledge about whethe